A “growing trend toward Jewish isolationism which threatens Jewish survival throughout the world” was attacked here today by Avraham Shenker, deputy member of the Jewish Agency executive, and American head of its Youth and Hechalutz department.
Speaking before almost 200 delegates from 23 national Jewish youth organizations, at the Second North American Regional Conference of the Jewish Youth of the United States and Canada, Mr. Shenker said: “All Jews must unite and cooperate to save the Jews of Soviet Russia, the remnants of European Jewry and the Jews of Latin America, who are living under the threat of a catastrophic volcano.”
Mr. Shenker expressed the hope that the Jewish leaders of the year 2, 000 would not look back 35 years and say of today’s Jewish leaders that they “were not informed and were not alert” to the threats to Jewish survival.
“The task of Jewish youth today,” he said, “is to keep informed of the problems facing Jewry, so that they will heighten the consciousness of their responsibilities as Jews, and seek specific activities and programs to enable them to maintain intimate contact with other Jewries of the world.” “The special role of Israel,” he pointed out, “is to be a constant reminder to Jewry of its responsibilities to the Jewish people of the world.”
Emanuel Batshaw, director of national services of the National Jewish Welfare Board, making a plea for “a sense of ‘Klal Yisroel’ and actual working together,” said that unity of action among Jewish youth could be achieved through local youth councils. “Our object should not be to develop a monolithic youth organization,” he declared. “There is great value in diversity. What we should seek is not uniformity, but rather unity within diversity.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
